Half to albert w



UNTTmi STATES PATENT Ottica.

DUDLEY J. MARSTON, OF SALISBURY, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE- HALF TOALBERT W. TODD, OF SAME PLAGE.

wooo FLooaiNe.

.JZIFICATIQN fczming part of Letters Paten'cNo. 308,18i, dated November18,1884.

Application lled July 2l, i884. (No model.)

To all whom it' may concer/t:

Be it known that I, DUDLEY J. MaRsToN, of Salisbury, in the county ofEssex and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and usefulImprovementin Wood Flooring, which will, in connection with the-accompanying drawings, be hereinafter fully described, and specificallydefined in the appended claims.

This invention has for its object an improve- 1 to ment in Woodiiooring; and it will, in connection with the accompanying drawings, behereinafter more particularly and fully described and claimed.

In said drawings, Figure l is a plan view showing the method ofarranging the constituent bars of wood from which I produce my iiooring,portions thereof being broken away for want of space. Fig. 2 is an edgeelevation of one of the iiooring-strips as cut from theparts shown inFig. l, and shown as resting on the under iiooring. Fig. 3 is a planview of my iiooring, the same being shown as .partly broken away. Fig. 4is avertical section taken as on line A A, Fig. 3, and showing myflooring as resting upon the under ooring.

' In said Fig. l, a a represent strips or bars of wood which are of athickness, as measured transverselyto lines b, to give the desired area,when cut obliquely to said lines, as will be described, and whose width,measured vertically, as in Fig. l, is equal to the length of the obliquefaces cut on each strip, as Will be described. These strips are, foreconomizing material, arranged in a stair-step position, as shown inFig.1,and, being all of equal length, will be thus stairstepped at eachend, but With sides which are parallel, such stairstep arrangement ot'bars a being so proportioned or adjusted that lines 0, when cutcoincident with said steps,'will be at an angle of about thirty degreesto lines b.' Vhen said strips a are so arranged, they are, by aid ofsuitable clamping and compressing devices and the application of glue atthe meeting faces at b, solidly united together, and after beingthoroughly dried the body is sawed into strips, subdivided on lines c,as stated. In Fig. 2 one of these strips is shown in edge view, thelines b being oblique to the upper and 5o lower plane of the strip.After these strips are thus sawed from the united body, and are dulysmoothed, they are at their respective edges tongued and grooved, asshown in Figs. 3, 4, and may then, when cut in suitable lengths, beglued together, forming squares, or may be laid the entire length offloors.

It will be obvious that by employing light and dark'woods alternately asvstrips a, as in-v dicated in Figs. l, 2, and then arranging t-he samealternately when assembled, as indicated 6o in Fig. 3, (where lines findicate the intersection of lines b c, Fig. 1,) a contrasting checkedpattern may without increased expense be produced.

I am Well aware that it is old, common, and 6 5 Well known to arrangewood in alternating colors or kinds, either in strips, squares,vor otherfigures, and hence I make no claimthereto 5 my invention consisting in4a iiooring material of wood wherein the line ot' fiber is 7o oblique tothe plane of the ioor, andthe meeting faces ot' the glued joints of theassembled strips are also oplique to the plane of the floor, as shown inFig. 2, as by such arrangement otl the parts the wearing endurance ofthe wood is much greater than if the direction of the ber of the woodwas coincident with the plane of the iioor, and the strength .of theglue joints is much greater than could be obtained if the fiber or" thewood was at right So angles to the plane of the iioor, and besides eachsquare or block of mytlooring is held in place by the overhang oftheadjacent square, and each is supported by the underlying portion of theadjacent block upon the other side, thereby interlocking cach block withthose adjacent to it, as well as affording a greater area or extent ofglue joint at lines b than if the same were vertical; and by havingstrips a of the proper width they will,when tongued, 9o as shown inFigs. 3, 4, have a width equal to the distance between lines b, whenmeasured on lines c, thus rendering squares It equalsided, as` lines f,Fig. 3, represent the in`v tersection of lines b, while lines grepresent 95 the joint at the edges of strips a after the same aretongued and grooved.

I claim as my invention- V l. The herein-described improvement in woodiiooring, the saine consisting in squares roo or sheets of Wood so cutthat the ber thereof is at an oblique angle relatively t0 the plane ofthe floor, substantially as specified.

2. food loorng` constructed in squares or sections, each one of which isupon one side partly underlaid and supported by the adjacent square orsection, While upon the opposite side it is overlaid and interloclzed bythe square or section adjacent upon that side, substantially asspecified.

` 3. The herein-described method of forming ilooring, the saineconsisting` in gluing together at the Wider faces thereof strips ofwood, then cutting` the saine into strips upon lines oblique to the lineof such glue joints, whereby when such latter strips are laid as a iioor the direction ofthe line ofber and oi' the 1 glue joints areoblique to the plane of the iloor, substantially as specified.

4. The herein-described method of forming flooring in alternatingsquares of Woods of different colors, the same consisting in gluingtogether at the Wider face's thereof strips of wood of different colors,then cutting the saine into strips upon lines oblique to the line ofsuch glue joints, and then arranging such strips in the i'loor withcontrastingcolored squares opposite each other, substantially asspecified.

DUDLEY J. MARSTON.

Vitnesses: A

GEORGE H. BRIGGs, FRANK R. WHITCHER.

